CASIT

Haptic-Guided Telementoring Systems

The development of a haptic guidance system to facilitate minimally invasive surgical training and telementoring is currently underway at CASIT. While MIS techniques have been shown to provide tremendous advantages for patients, novice laparoscopic surgeons developing their skills face challenging learning curves.  In addition, expert mentors are concentrated in relatively few centers and are often times not readily available at remote locations especially near battlefield settings. A system that combines the functionality of real time and intraoperative videoconferencing with haptic guidance will allow a novice operator to perform an endoscopic procedure with the assistance of a remote expert via telementoring.

Illustration showing Haptic-Guided Telementoring Systems

The focus of this program is to integrate low-profile actuators and sensors into traditional laparoscopic instruments. The sensors provide precise information on the position of each individual tool. The actuators integrated into the system allow a user to remotely use the instruments without physically touching them. The combined system is incorporated with user graphics that enable a virtual reality in remote settings. Recently , the entire system was used to evaluate the proficiencies of novice and expert users, i.e. construct validity. The new tool combined with computer user interfaces is expected to provide a more expedited learning process to novice surgeons and reduce the learning curve from a year to months. Finally, remote assistance concepts using the actuated laparoscopic instruments are being evaluated. These results are very promising given that the current system is a relatively low profile and can easily be moved from location to location. The proposed system is a novel enabling technology with potentially additional benefits and uses, that may be identified in the future. Future work is focusing on understanding and implementing this novel system to improve modern medicine, in addition to the main targets of this project.

Funding for this work is provided by the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) and the Department of Defense (DoD).

Illustration showing Haptic-Guided Telementoring Systems

Expert surgeon’s motions are recorded during a procedure (left) and then this data is used to develop a training simulation where novice surgeons practice by imitating the expert surgeon’s gestures (right).

Investigators: 
Petros Faloutsos, PhD, Department of Computer Science
Tsu-Chin Tsao, PhD, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Erik Dutson, MD Division of General Surgery
E. Carmack Holmes, MD, Division of Thoracic Surgery
Graduate Students: Lica Nestor, Brian Allen

Publications in Peer Reviewed Journals:

  1. Allen B.,Nistor V.,Dutson E.,Carman G.,Lewis C.,Faloutsos P., "Support Vector Machines Improve the Accuracy of Performance Evaluation of Laparoscopic Training Tasks, Surgical Endoscopy." 24(1), 170-178, January 2010.
  2. Allen B.,Jordan B.,Pannell W.,Lewis C.,Dutson E.,Faloutsos P.,  "A Laparoscopic Surgical Robot for Remote in Vivo Training." Advanced Robotics. (In Press).

Publications in Conference and Symposium Proceedings:

  1. Allen B., Chu D., Shapiro A., Faloutsos P.,"On the Beat! Timing and Tension for Dynamic Characters",, ACM SIGGRAPH Eurographics Symposium on Computer Animation, 2007, pp. 239-247.
  2. Allen B.,Faloutsos P., "Complex Networks of Simple Neurons for Bipedal Locomotion."  IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, St. Louis, October 2009.
  3. Allen B.,Faloutsos P.,  "Evolved Controllers for Simulated Locomotion." 2nd Intl Workshop on Motion in Games, Zeist, November 2009.
  4. Nistor V, Allen B, Carman GP, Faloutsos P, Dutson E, "Haptic guided telementoring and videoconferencing system for laparoscopic surgery," Proceedings of the SPIE 14th International Symposium Smart Structures and Materials & Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring, San Diego, CA, 18-23 March 2007.
  5. Shapiro A.,Chu D.,Allen B.,Faloutsos P.,"A Dynamic Controller Toolkit", in ACM SIGGRAPH Video Game Symposium (Sandbox), pp. 15-20, 2007.
  6. Sunshine-Hill B, Faloutsos P, "Photorealistic lighting with offset radiance transfer mapping", Proceedings of ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics and Games 2006, Redwood City, CA, 14-17 March 2006, 15-21.

Abstracts:

  1. Sunshine-Hill B, Faloutsos P, "Photorealistic lighting with offset radiance transfer mapping", ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics and Games 2006, Redwood City, CA, 14-17 March 2006.

  2. Nistor V, Allen B, Carman GP, Faloutsos P, Dutson E, "Haptic guidance for laparoscopic surgery immersive training and mentoring," Medicine Meets Virtual Reality 15: in vivo, in vitro, in silico: Designing the next in Medicine, Long Beach, CA, 6-9 February 2007.
  3. Nistor V, Allen B, Carman GP, Faloutsos P, Dutson E, "Haptic guided telementoring and videoconferencing system for laparoscopic surgery," SPIE 14th International Symposium Smart Structures and Materials & Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring, San Diego, CA, 18-23 March 2007.
  4. Nistor V, "Construct Validity for the UCLA Laparoscopic Training System (LTS)," Medicine Meets Virtual Reality 16: parallel, combinatorial, convergent: NextMed by design, 31 January - 1 February 2008, Long Beach, CA, 2008.
  5. Nistor V, Allen B, Carman GP, Faloutsos P, Dutson E, "Haptic guidance for laparoscopic surgery immersive training and mentoring," Medicine Meets Virtual Reality 15: in vivo, in vitro, in silico: Designing the next in Medicine, Long Beach, CA, 6-9 February 2007.
  6. Nistor V, Allen B, Carman GP, Faloutsos P, Dutson E, "Construct Validity for the UCLA Laparoscopic Training System (LTS)," Medicine Meets Virtual Reality 16: parallel, combinatorial, convergent: Next Med by design, 31 January - 1 February 2008, Long Beach, CA, 29Jan-01Feb 2008.
  7. Nistor V, Allen B, Carman GP, Faloutsos P, Dutson E, "Sensors & Actuators for Minimally Invasive Surgery", Dean's Advisory Council, UCLA Los Angeles, CA, April17, 2008.

Theses and Dissertations:

Sunshine-Hill B, "Photorealistic lighting with offset radiance transfer mapping", Master's Thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 2006.

Media highlights:

  • UCLA Researchers develop training tool, Daily Bruin, May 4th 2007.
  • Guided surgery tool brings expertise to remote locations. Collaborative tool offers new training method, UCLA Engineering, April 4th, 2007.